Betrayal
by Ferox Ryter
Summary: The Yamani-Tortallian War! I bet you never thought this could happen! This is several years after the end of Lady knight. It's a little disjointed, but I'm working on it.
1. Default Chapter

Betrayal.  
  
[ooc] Okay, I don't know what I had eaten that night, but this came from the dream that resulted. Read and work it out, go on. And please don't hate me for it[/ooc]  
  
King Jonathan of Conte looked at the single piece of paper in his hand, eyes skimming over the words once more, not quiet believing what he was reading.   
"But why?" burst Alanna the Lioness, King's Champion and temper as fiery as her hair.  
"Recourses," said sir Myles, the historian and desk knight dressed in plain, comfortable clothes not revealing his true wealth. "They are an island nation. They have very little land to grow crops, and much of it is mountainous. We on the other hand, have lots of land, and a large coastline vulnerable to their attack. Scarnia and Carthak are not worth the battle, and all the other nations are really just too far away to be worth the trouble of getting there."  
"We've had a treaty with them for years!" bellowed Raoul.  
"The change of government over there hasn't helped," added Sir Gareth of Naxen, the younger. "I am afraid, Lady and Gentlemen, that this war is imminent." Jonathan sighed, placed the sheet of paper down on the desk, and looked at his counsel.   
"How many ships do we have?"  
"Not nearly enough to counter their fleet your highness. Until we do, all we shall be able to do is defend against their raids I'm afraid."  
"And defend we bloody well will!"  
"Careful Alanna, remember your blood pressure." Alanna sat back down and commenced grumbling.   
"Jive us a look at that map and lets see where they're most likely to make a move," suggested Raoul, "No time like the present."  
  
The candles gradually burnt lower, and lower, as the discussion continued and drew to a close.   
"We'll have to alert the coastal forts, this isn't going to be an easy battle," noted Raoul.   
"That is true. Have messengers go out, especially to our diplomats at Mindelan," ordered Jonathan.  
"So this is official then?" checked Sir Gareth.  
"Yes," answered Jon, "Tortall is at war with Yamani."  
  
[ooc] Am I the only person who ever had that idea? Oh well. Tell me what you think of he idea so I can get past this prolouge and off to Kel :D[/ooc] 


	2. Keladry's thoughts

[ooc] Yes I have read the books, as for spelling it's hard to spell right so early in the morning after waking up from a nightmare, and I said that was only a prolouge. But at least I know people have read it. What were you expecting? Characters being betrayed? Oh, and please let Mr. Rubber-duckie breathe.[/ooc]  
  
Keladry of Mindelan had never expected it to happen. The Yamani Islands and Tortall had held a treaty and alliance for years, and now, without warning, it had fallen apart. It made no sense. Tortall, it seemed, made far more enemies than it did friends.   
Even worse, Keladry felt no more loyalty to Tortall than she did the islands, they had both been, and both were, her home. She had friends on both sides, and wanted to fight against nobody she knew.  
But the very worst part was, that she knew she would.  
Anybody who glanced at her face just then would have known nothing of her inner turmoil, for her face was a familiar Yamani calm, but Keladry had made sure that there was nobody around just then to witness it. Her face hadn't changed much during the last three years, she still had her hazel, dreamy eyes, her short cut brown hair and determined chin. But now, to add to the list of noticable features, she had a scar across her left cheak which had healed cleanly, but had left a dint.  
Kel couldn't work out why this nightmare was coming true, it made no sense. The Yamani's had always been able to survive with just their islands, so they didn't really need to attack Tortall's shore. Also, King Jonathan had the Dominian Jewel, which they surely knew about. Only a fool would order an army to attack a land with the reigning monarch holding the jewel, unless they had some reason or advantage to make it all worthwhile.   
She thought back to her days at the Yamani court. There had been something, well, something odd about Prince Tojo. Not exactly odd, more of an unwillingness to change. She had never given him much thought or recognition other that that which the future emperor was due.  
Actually, now Kel thought about it, he reminded her of Lord Wyldon.   
It seemed like everywhere she went, there was always someone against her. That she accepted as life, but the fact that they were against her because she was a she just wasn't right. Hadn't she proved her worth to all those stupid people who hated change already.  
Kel shook her head at her own silliness, she was taking this far too personally. People had always been afraid of change, and Tortall was where all the big changes were happening.   
She stopped and sat down, the walk in the gardens of her home had not helped to ease her mind. Most probably the only thing that would ease her mind was knowing that peace had returned and the whole idea of this silly and futile war on the horizon was forgotten.   
It wasn't that Kel didn't have faith in her friends to survive against their enemies, it was that her friends were on both sides. She had seen enough fights to make her wonder if becoming a knight was such a good idea, but never doubted her past judgements. Nevertheless, now she didn't know what to do. She knew she would end up fighting in the brewing war, because she would never abandon her friends, but she didn't know on which side, or why.  
The people Kel felt the most concerned for were Neal, Yuki, Prince Roald and Princess Shinkokami. Whenever there was a war there was always hate for the other side. Having a wife from the enemy side, let alone a princess and future queen, was going to cause trouble. The four of them were all behind Tortall walls, but Kel had to wonder how long it would be before one of the couples at least had to leave.   
The war with Scarna three years ago had been more than enough, Tortall was only just now beginning to recover. At least Scarna had far too many mountains so close to their shore for an army to forage easily. The Copper Isles were remaining neutral, being in much the same situation as the Yamanis, and quite likely to jump on the band wagon at a later stage if the Yamani Isles seemed to be winning.  
Kel jumped out of her thoughts suddenly when something cold and wet brushed against her hand. This wasn't an unusual occurance, but she hadn't been expecting it.  
"What do you want?" she asked the little dog that had jumped up onto the seat beside her. Although still a small puppy, the dog had intelligence behind his eyes set firmly on a brown wedge-shaped skull with one ear pointing up, the other ear flopping down and a tail frantically slapping anything that came within range. All its fur was brown except for a white tip of its tail. The dog yipped and headbutted Kel's arm.  
"What do you want Dip?" Dip, as the dog was called because of its tail, was one of Jump's offspring. There was also Rolo, named because he would always roll onto his back whenever anyone looked at him, Rouge, named so because he was always stealing food, Runt, called that because he was the smallest, and Blackie, because he was black and lacked any other distinguishing feature.  
"Lady Kel!" Tobe came running towards her. For a change he was without his usually companion, a small, feisty, piebald mare he had named, as people so often do to animals of her colouring, Spot. He had actually grown a lot in three years, and Kel suspected would end up quite handsome and make a fair few girls swoon. That is, if he could stop making horses fall in love with him.  
"What is it Tobe?"  
"I'm sorry to interrupt, but your parents would like a word."  
"I'm coming." 


	3. Neal ranting

Neal paced back and forth across the palace room. This was not good. Yukimi, his wife, and swollen with child, sat in a chair, dressed Yamani style, in a dark blue kimono with her black hair pulled up tight, but no make-up this busy morning.   
"This is idiocy! Random idiocy!" shouted Nealan, still pacing circles across the carpet. "This can't happen!"  
"It has," said Yuki, quite plainly, "And it will."  
"Have the Yamani's lost their minds! Am I losing mine! Is this all just some hideous nightmare! That's it, it must be. This is all a nightmare….." Yuki stood up to comfort her husband.  
"Would I look like this in a nightmare?" she asked soothingly, hiding her worry with Yamani skill, knowing it wouldn't help. Neal faltered with the answer for a moment.  
"Whatever I answer for that, it's not going to sound right."  
"At least you still have some sense. Come, have some tea."  
"Tea! We are on the brink of war and you want to drink some tea!"  
"That Yamani empire was build on tea," replied Yuki placidly.   
"Oh? That's what the volcanoes are then, is it?"  
"Nealan," said Yuki firmly, come sit down and have some tea. Neal ignored Yuki's tone, but sat down beside her.  
"No tea. Tea isn't going to help."  
"Neither is pacing, you must keep calm."  
"This is mad! I never thought this was possible!" So much for Neal being calm. "It's about as likely as Kel falling for Joren! And between you and me I don't think she's the sort to fall in love with a corpse."  
"Yelling at the walls isn't going to help. They will not tear themselves from the foundations and march off to the islands. Please, stop pulling your hair out. I like it much better on your head."  
"And I like my head on my shoulders. If all you Yamanis are half as good at Kel with her glaive then my head is going to be a freaky doorstop! If your Yamanis are half as good as Kel, we're going to lose!"  
"I am not Yamani anymore. I am of Tortall," said Yuki, trying to be calm although the thought of her kinsfolk being slaughtered was upsetting her deeply. Many times she had walked through the market place with Neal, or other palace ladies, and it was obvious that most people on the street thought of her as a foreigner still Once this war started, she would be more than a foreigner, she would be an enemy behind their lines. That was not a good situation.  
"The average man on the street isn't going to know that. This war can't happen."  
"So we must stop it."  
"I hate being a pessimist, but I can't see how. It's not as simple as sneaking across the boarder to Scarna like last time. I mean, we can't swim that far. We need boats, and there's no thick forest to hide in. It's not that simple to pull a wild, roguish stunt."  
"We will find a way."  
  
[ooc] Sorry this chapter took so long and is so short in comparason but I was having trouble concentrating and was finding Yuki hard to write. Also I was working on the Gauntlets, whether people read them or not[/ooc] 


End file.
